WIN: 2-1 vs Celtic – Badgers Back To Winning Ways

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but it was way way way too hot for October – and the Honey Badgers were without The Tent for yesterday’s return to action against Celtic Cowboys. The Honey Badgers needed to get back on track after last week’s hiccup with Libertad, who coincidently beat The Punters prior to kickoff. The Punters did have quite an impressive array of tents, but no short term leases were available. The Badgers would have to sweat it out w/o even the shade of a tree. Harsh.

Like most matches, when it was all said and done the Honey Badgers had 4-5 subs to work with on this hot day, including the return of Brian Parks for his first action of the season.

Celtic had lots of tall oaks on their squad to match up with some of the more diminutive Badgers on hand. But Danimal was also back to anchor the D in the center of the park.

Cameron Road was doing pretty well early on, although their passing game hadn’t hit high gear. On a corner kick, Chappy eyed up a connection with the B.D.O.P. and was demolished from behind. Surely a penalty, but perhaps it was friendly fire?

At the other end, a slight disagreement between Ciro, Big Dave and Chappy on the particular intricacies and quantum entanglements of defenders and their respective pairs of attackers gave a Celtic attacker a shot from distance which he placed well from range for the early lead. No worries, back at the lab at halftime the three cooked up some Breaking Bad type new shit to use in the second half.

It wouldn’t take CRU long to get back into the game though. Derek and Gianluca were playing well up top and were getting close to netting. The Badgers dumped in a free kick which was headed for Derek, but his “dummy” (whif) funneled the ball into Chappy who was in the process of falling down backwards but managed to get The Bunion on the ball and ram it into the far corner for the tying goal. Typical unorthodox goal from Cameron Road’s bald Captain.

Ciro, Yuni and Peterson were getting it done in the middle of the park, and for one scary moment it looked like Ciro was done as he and a Celtic defender went in hard for a 50-50 ball. The Celtic player went low and caught Ciro in the chest/head, but the little engine that could rose from the turf, brushed it off, and continued to soldier on.

The Badgers took the lead for good as Gianluca and Derek hooked up for another fantastic goal, trading passes until Gigi found Derek to stab it home. Those two are really playing lights out together these days and it is a sight to behold.

Oranges in the heat, but a good crop nonetheless.

To start the second half, Jesus was back on the pitch after a few weeks of injury, and tried to conjure up some magic from the wing. On the other end, Adam was busy trying to conjure up his own brand of dark magic against Celtic, putting them at unease. Parks was back in action covering in defense, and Pete was hitting all the sweet spots in midfield.

Gianluca got a little spicy with one of the Celtic center backs who tried to carry the ball out of the back rather aggressively and earned himself a yellow card. Shortly after, Cameron Road stole the ball and Derek got it to Gianluca inside the box for this redemption. His shot clanked off the crossbar and back out to him for a bicycle attempt, but alas, it was not to be.

Let it be known Ciro won a header on the near post from a corner kick, bringing his lifetime total of near-post clearances to two.

With their passing game not up to par on the day, the Honey Badgers were relying on their defense to keep Jaybone free from danger. Billy, Danimal, Guillermo, Big Dave and a dose of Parks were all up to the task.

The Badgers probably had more shots in the second half, but the score remained the same. Yuni played Chappy in with a nice pass to the right, but his shot went just slightly over the bar (just slightly = 20 feet).

In the end as tempers started to heat up with the plasma-like atmosphere, the defense stood tall and pitched a second half shutout to get the Badgers back on track with a 2-1 win vs Celtic!

Now the Badgers will try to heal up and get ready for the end of season stretch run as they have 3 weeks off before the next game on Oct 27.

Man-of-the-Match: Before intensifying in the gulf and charging towards Flordaye, Hurricane Milton stirred up the waters on the Honey Badger back line causing mass confusing in the Celtic attack.

Post-Match-Report: No tent. No water for icings. It was hot.